Santana No-Hitter Gets Asterisk In St. Louis

I've never read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before in my life, but I have to say, this cover page right here, correctly noting that Johan Santana was aided by a blown call at third base, is about as unbiased as it gets. Anyone crying "homerism" just doesn't get it.

St. Louis is a town known for its smart, die-hard fan base. It's a baseball town. But from whence all that baseball IQ? The hand that feeds, obviously. You won't find petty exceptions carved out for amazing feats of strength in the Post-Dispatch, unless it's deserved like this one.

A city that was home to one of the greatest hitters, who was for "three years the single-season record holder for home runs at 70," would never pump out ridiculous fluff pieces about the steroids era's ground zero or leave unannotated questionable achievements—unless it wasn't really important.

Part of the reason the town is so smart, is because for a long time, the Manager was so smart. Even more than smarts, he had a will to win to rival that of his players'. "He retire[d] as the third winningest manager in Major League Baseball history behind only John McGraw (2,763) and the all-time leader Connie Mack (3,731)." That's a helluva record and shouldn't be sullied by a bogus notation concerning trivialities like being a classic enabler to two of the all-time great juicers—unless it happened somewhere else. It's clear neither manager nor player-turned-hitting coach should spend any time "conceding he cheated or deceived the game that has made him an icon."

It's very important to differentiate between the real records and the tarnished ones. We need to know who did things correctly and who cheated or who got a bit of an advantage when he otherwise would not have. That's why this Santana thing is spot on. He got a no-hitter when he didn't deserve it and that kind of unfair advantage should be pointed out so people know he doesn't deserve all the accolades heaped upon him—but only when it really matters.